In 1997, studies presented in MarkeTrak reports (MarkeTrack—The US Hearing Instrument Market, Sergei Kochkin, Ph.D., Published by Knowles Electronics, Itasca Ill.) estimated that of the 24 to 28 million Americans believed to experience significant hearing loss, approximately 21% of this population actually used hearing aids. It has also been projected in these and other studies that the impaired population is growing primarily as a result of the increase in the U.S. aging population, and due to an increase in exposure to high level sounds by the general population.
Individuals with hearing loss commonly have difficulty hearing low volume sounds as well as discriminating speech masked by speech like noise. In spite of the technical and marketing efforts of those producing hearing aids, market penetration of this population has not changed significantly. This is an unfortunate situation in that many individuals who suffer from hearing loss, and do not obtain help, tend to experience significant emotional stress by removing themselves from many desired social situations, due to an inability to effectively function.
A number of reasons have been documented, that contribute to the low penetration of hearing aid sales such as: 1) The fact that hearing loss typically comes on gradually and is not immediately obvious to an individual (“I am not convinced that 1 have a hearing problem”); 2) The negative stigma of being handicapped, associated with being a hearing aid user; 3) The belief that hearing aids do not create the same degree of improvement as say eyeglasses; and, 4) The fact that modern hearing aids are relatively expensive for their perceived value.
Hearing aid technology has however made steady improvements with respect to making sounds more audible and comfortable, as well as improving the perceived signal-to-noise ratio of amplified speech masked by noise.
In addition, products have also been developed that allow wireless connectivity between a microphone positioned near a desired but distant talker and a small radio receiver connected to a Behind-the-Ear (BTE) hearing aid. Wireless devices such as these are primarily used in teaching situations where one transmitter can serve a large number of students much like a radio station. Variations of such products have been developed as well for personal use, and in some cases allow remote communication from a cellular telephone or remote microphone by means such as a Bluetooth transmission link to a radio receiver connected to a user's hearing aid.
In general however these devices tend to be expensive, require a fair amount of user skill to operate, involve wireless transmission links that are often not secure to others monitoring the same radio channel, and do not allow two or more impaired individuals to communicate with each other in a wide variety of “real life” interactive situations.
These factors clearly indicate that products and technology that would enable the growing hearing impaired population to effectively communicate at home, in vehicles, and in a variety of private and public gatherings while at the same time removing barriers of cost, unimpressive performance, and the stigma of traditional hearing aids, is a highly desirable but unmet need.
In an embodiment, an objective of the current invention is to provide a means for individuals with varying degrees of hearing loss to effectively and easily communicate with family, friends, and the public in a variety of basic living, social and public settings.
In an embodiment, an objective of the current invention is to allow individuals with varying degrees of hearing loss to easily interact with modern communications technology such as cellular telephones, televisions, radios, computers, personal digital assistants, GPS systems, and information data bases.
In an embodiment, an objective of the current invention is to allow individuals with or without significant hearing loss to communicate more effectively in a variety of real world situations where achieving adequate speech intelligibility is difficult at best, such as in noisy restaurants, large social gatherings, and crowded public spaces.
In an embodiment, an objective of the current invention is to allow groups of individuals to communicate more effectively in business situations by eliminating the echo, interactive problems and difficulties for listeners at distant locations associated with hands free speaker telephones particularly in teleconference situations, while at the same time allowing a high degree of mobility throughout a business environment.